In this short scene, the audience is introduced to the conductor and his wife, who are both in their mid-thirties. The conductor, who has been in charge of the orchestra for many years, is now in his late forties, and the wife is in her early forties. He is the son of the conductor's father, who was a member of the Vienna State Opera and who died when the orchestra was destroyed by the earthquake in the early 1900s. The two of them are now married, and they have two children, one of whom is a student at the State University of Vienna and the other a young man who is studying to become a conductor. The young man, who is called "Chevalier" by the audience, is a young conductor who has just been promoted to the rank of assistant conductor. He has just returned from his first assignment with the orchestra, where he was assigned the task of conducting a piece by the young conductor, and he is disappointed to learn that the young man has been dismissed from the job. The audience is impressed with the conductor, but the conductor is not impressed. He tells the audience that he would like to join the orchestra in the near future, but that he will have to wait until the next year to do so.